Shabd

Trying hard to like Leena Yadav's debut film 'Shabd', you sit thru the entire feature in eager anticipation of a/the/any magic moment. But ...

Although the premise was novel, the buildup was not. One sex scene does not compensate for the lack of sexual chemistry between the leading pair. The Booker-prize winning author is trying so hard to come up with an authentic story for his next novel that he goes and casts his own wife as her rebellious alter-ego, easily falling for the 'forbidden fruit'. Shaukat Vashist requests, goads, almost forces his wife Antara to initiate an illicit relationship to help him craft a leading character in his next novel. When the 'truth' becomes stranger than his bookish 'fiction', and Antara meets and eventually falls for a dashing (yea, no less) young colleague, Mr Novelist is quite unable to handle it. But he saves the best, a one-page ending, for last.

We are not led to believe that the entire thing is the writer's fertile imagination gone awry. Evidently Yash's character is real (witness the college peon asking Shaukat if he had any message for Yash, etc) and so is the romance that ensues between Yash and the writer's wife Antra. In the end, it appears the writer of "Shabd" was herself so confused about the interactions between her characters (there were only 3!) that she couldn't figure out how to end the characters or the movie!! The performance by Sanjay Dutt was the saving grace of this film. Zayed Khan is miscast as the college professor and lacks acting skills. Aish tries hard but her dialogs are so mushy; could have used some zing.

The writer of this review believes that the writer of this movie should have worked harder on the writer in her movie.

Leena Yadav's surprising "Shabd" (2005) is probably the most unfairly overlooked Hindi film in recent times: its box office fate was bleak, the reviews churlish, its theme dubbed too bizarre for India. One might thus be excused for thinking the film merited a pass; one would be wrong: "Shabd" is one of Bollywood's more interesting offerings in recent years, and features fine performances from Sanjay Dutt and Aishwarya Rai to boot. The latter's efforts in particular should lay to rest the fallacy that she cannot act to save her life. Rather, as "Chokher Bali," "Raincoat" and now "Shabd" have shown, Ms. Rai needs the right script and the right director to shine. Indeed the skepticism of movie critics about her abilities says more about our collective unwillingness to appreciate non-dramatic artistes than about Ms. Rai's lack of acting talent. Leena Yadav has done a fantastic job with "Shabd," and viewers willing to lend themselves to the film will find that it holds their attention throughout with a taut script that only flags a bit towards the very end of the film. Boiled down to its essentials, "Shabd" is about a one-time celebrated writer, Shaukat Vasisht (Sanjay Dutt)-- whose most recent novel has failed miserably-- and his wife Antara Vasisht (played by Aishwarya Rai in a nuanced performance), and Shaukat's attempts to redeem himself by means of a new book that he has begun to write. The film is, according to Ms. Yadav, about the thin line separating reality from fiction...

continued at: http://qalandari.blogspot.com/2005/08/shabd.html

The director Leena Yadav is falsely imprisoned in her aura that she is Stanley Kubrick re-incarnate. Its obvious that Sanju and Ash have signed the dotted line without reading the script and the director should be lauded for making mickey out of them.

The script does not have holes - it has craters. And in terms of execution - it makes you feel that at the end of every shooting schedule the director goes into hibernation and forgets where she left off.

Our writer uses still uses type-writer for drafting his stories, which cleverly signifies the power outages in India. And did I tell you that our writer is suit-fetish? How does it justify the writer being recipient of Booker's prize award when he at loss to delve into the psyche of a woman for his forthcoming novel? Taking too many liberties of Booker's prize eh? (Culprit: Baghbaan!).

It is evident that Ash lacks conviction owing to her Hollywood assignments. Sanju's monologues gets on the nerves. Zayed Khan as a professor. Excuse Me! Bollywood badly needs a dedicated casting dept. Let me re-iterate here that Zayed does not even pretend making wee-bit of effort. It re-enforces my opinion that "star-kids are pampered lot".

And please help me decide which one was worst - chemistry between Sanju and Ash or Zayed and Ash.

Sadiya is only saving grace to the film and does her role with conviction.

Avoid at all costs!

I said that I was going to re-post after I watched the movie and restate if my feelings still remains. I watched the movie today and it was okay. My expectations weren't too high for this movie, and the movie wasn't as bad as I read it would be. The main thing that took me off is Zayed Khan as Yash. I think his acting did not fit well and there was no connection or chemistry between him and Aishwarya (he also doesn't look well on screen with Aishwarya). He was just wrongly casted for the part or maybe he just didn't do justice. Even after Tamara told Yash she was married, I didn't have any type of affection or remorse towards Yash or Tamara and Yash's relationship (I think I was more happy that she told him to just Yash out of the picture)--it was just blend. The humor was confusing (yash humor especially) and not funny. I know when I re-watch this movie, I would forward through it.

Another thing is the intro of the movie and the actors. I don't think it captured the audience as much as it should have. Again, when Yash was introduced I found him rather annoying. Aishwarya and Sanjay's acting abilities did not fall short especially towards the ending. Sanjay played well as a confused writer who got fiction and reality confused and Aishwarya as the victim in Shaukat's fiction and reality.

The art in this film is also very good and beautiful. Overall, this movie has the potential to be a really good film with some changes; unfortunately, it fell short with the blend acting, chemistry, lack to carry out the concept story, and lack to get the audience interested with the characters.

7.5 out of 10 mainly for some direction and art concept of the movie. I appreciate Aishwarya more in films such as Raincoat, Chokher Bali, HDDCS, and Devdas.

Shabd is too conceptual and too tentative in its approach. Debutant director Leena Yadav tells a story in Shabd that is very modern in its approach. Shaukat (Sanjay Dutt) does not believe in disappointment but when it comes to him as his own disaster, he is not able to accept it easily. He has a gorgeous wife Antara (Aishwarya Rai) who is very responsive and very thoughtful. She will do anything to make her husband grin. Having earned disgrace with his unusual novel, Shaukat now makes a bid to enact the novel in his real life using himself and Antara as the fundamental characters. Sanjay Dutt supports his wife Aishwarya Rai to have an extra-marital affair with her colleague Zayed Khan, so that the husband could integrate life-like, realistic situations in his current novel.

Can it ever get weirder than this?

Antara meets Zayed Khan who is hell bent on getting this sexy diva. Antara is scruffy by his behavior but remains quiet as she is already a married woman. All attempts by Yash to attract her fail and then Shaukat enter the scene. He wants his wife to enter into a relationship with Yash so that the contours of his story start developing. But, little does he know that Antara will actually defy the novel storyline and fall in love with Yash in real life too. The story has an unforeseen twist as Antara falls head over heels in love with Yash. And there is no looking back for her.

To say the least, Leena Yadav has built a strange story in her attempt to look different.

The film moves on with jerks and fails to even establish one equation among the protagonists of the love triangle. Even the editing is loose and there is poor support on the dialogs.

Music by Vishal-Shekhar is melodic. In fact, a couple of songs do stand out - Khoya Khoya, Chahaton Ka Silsila and Sholo Si were brilliantly executed. After Jhankar Beats and Musafir they did it again. One more winning musical score from the duo. Cinematography by Aseem Bajaj is excellent. The film is visually striking.

Sanjay Dutt performs his piece well. The sober look, crew-cut hairstyle, glasses, suits him well. Aishwarya Rai takes to the job with certainty. And like always, the screen fills up with her guise.

Aishwarya is going to suffer the most from the failure of this film. She was in need of a hit desperately but luck has played with her again. She is totally miscast and her character is lousy. The lines and situations written for her are not well thought of and all this only makes her presence go useless on screen. Aishwarya needs to learn her lessons fast, in her attempt to make a niche for herself overseas.

Zayed Khan is a complete miscast. He does not look like a college professor and even otherwise, doesn't have the maturity to carry off the role with meticulousness. Sadia Siddiqui is very efficient. Kamini Khanna does overacting.

On the whole, SHABD is too theoretical to plea to the customary Indian viewers. At the box-office, the film will find it hard to continue buoyant after its first weekend. 1 1/2 Out of 5